President needs to fulfill his climate promise

January 17, 2013

As President Obama prepares to start his second term, he needs to fulfill at least one self-imposed "obligation."

Following his re-election, President Obama offered a vision of his second term agenda. While the economy was still at the top of his list, the President also included addressing climate change among his top priorities and committed to working to find a solution on climate change in his second term.

Now is the time to fulfill that obligation by immediately committing resources and political capital to the task, including his own time, to build consensus to meaningful action to find climate solutions.

The president is willing to work with Congress to accomplish this task. However, in the event cooperation from Congress isn't forthcoming, the President should be prepared to exercise his regulatory authority to achieve positive and lasting results on climate change. Working in cooperation with industry, he's used this authority to set strong fuel efficiency and clean car standards that are achieving historic reductions in greenhouse gases that trigger climate change. He can do the same with strong standards for carbon pollution from both new and existing power plants, the nation's leading source of toxic climate pollutants.